HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!

Don´t know why I am so excited for the 4th of July... It is not going to be anything special. We can´t even play with fireworks or anything, which is really too bad since someone gave Hermana Zimmerman a nice homemade firecracker. :) hahah

 

Sounds like er´rybody is exhausted after RAGNAR. Serves you all right for being so awesome and crazy enough to run that thing. Bless your hearts... Loved the pictures :)

This week we had intercambios with other hermanas.. and the hermana that I worked with for the whole day was AMERICAN. Not just American.. but from Preston Idaho, so that was fun. We sure got some stares, though. I think some people thought we were lost. Anyroad, it was a great day! We contacted, we taught.. we hit up dairy queen.. It was a day of success. It was really fun to see how much we have improved since our MTC days. We still had our moments of "I dunno what they just said" and "What?" and "Nope. No entiendo." But overall, #éxito.

We had our "real" zone conference with the president this week. It was even better then the one before! We have a new culture in our mission. What is this exciting new culture, you ask? Calm down! It´s fine! I´ll tell you! 1. We leave our house everyday pretending like we do not have anybody that we are teaching. We need to have 2 new investigators every day! So that´s an exciting challenge. And 2. We are learning to use silence as one of the tools of teaching. Turns out, the Spirit cannot do his job in the lessons if we don´t let him. He needs us to stop talking so that he can touch their hearts and help them know right there that what we are saying is true. We have had some really special moments as we apply this technique. We also talked about how important the Book of Mormon is in conversion. OH it was great. I love President and Hermana Morales!

So, Karl sounds like a champ. I approve. As long as he doesn´t replace me in your hearts, everything is fine. Just remember still you have a loving (and still sweating) misionera here in Mexico. 

I love you I love you I love you!!

Con amor, 

Hermana Moser

Una carta de su misionera mexicana

 June 23, 2014

Buenas buenas buenas a mi querida familia!

 

This week has been mentally exhausting. We have taught so many people, and have found so many people that want to listen, but it has been really hard work.

 

We went to a zone conference so that Hermana Ayala could talk about how to contact people effectively, and then we stayed for the whole thing. We learned in the practices how to teach the first vision, the book of mormon, and receiving an answer through the spirit. It was AWESOME, and we were so inspired to go out and start teaching. We visited a new investigator named Marta that afternoon. Marta is beyond willing to listen to what we have to say, and is completely receptive to everything... but she is Catolica. She has been studying with a Testigo de Jeovah for over a year, and tells us that she only wants to listen so that she can learn more about the Bible and things like that. That is fine! We will teach her about the Bible.. and also about the Restauracion del Evangelio de Jesucristo. So we taught her the restauration, and the Spirit was so strong. We applied everything that we had learned in the conference. We explained things, we used the scriptures, we used our new whiteboard, and we testified with everything we had in us. At the end she said, "Wow. That is great. I believe everything you have said. I believe your church is true. But I also believe my church is true and that all churches lead us to the same God." I wanted to cry. We do not know what more we need to do to explain the need for priesthood authority, but believe me... we are studying real hard to be able to help people understand. We will also be visiting her again.

 

And priesthood authority.. that´s another thing. The nephew of a menos acitva that I adore was there at her house the other day. He is studying to be a preacher or something at another church, and he is always excited to chat with us. We were talking about hte book of Mormon, and that led into a discussion on el sacerdocio. He believes that because God created man in His own image, and gave Adam the priesthood, that all the sons of adam automatically it. He doesn´t believe in the laying on of hands. It was just thing after things after thing, and he wouldn´t even let us really talk. He treated us like little girls that are trying their best, bless them, but that don´t really know what they are talking about. So that was a frustrating afternoon.

 

Contrast that with dear, precious hermano Pedro. He is the sweetest man! He is only 53, but he looks a lot older because of his ilness. He´s a good sport about it though. He makes jokes about it all the time. We gave him a Book of Mormon the other day, and asked him to read and pray about 2 Nefi 31. When we returned the next afternoon and asked him how it went, he told us that he felt "alegria en mi corazon." He and his brother in law, Ignacio, came to a FHE that we had at Matilde y Leudy´s house where we talked about the repentance process and the atonement of Christ, and he also came with us to a baptism saturday night. We are praying really hard for him so that he will remain interested and that he will continue to accept the doctrine of the restored gospel. He is so ready! It´s amazing to see how the Lord has prepared people!

 

Speaking of Matilde.. We ate at her house yesterday. Do you want to know what we ate? Rabbit. Dad will be so proud. I did NOT know that it was rabbit. Poor little thing... It tasted real good.

 

The cabin looks great! I love the door! And also.. I still don´t have my new debit card. And so after the month of July it won´t matter if you put money on my card...

 

And also can I get more information on the exchange student? I care more about my new brother than about my room, to tell you the truth. DON¨T throw any of my crap away, porfa. I will do the chucking when I get back :) I can already tell it will be a chuch-fest, but I still enjoy going through old stuff like that :)

 

I love you I love you I love you!

 

Que esten bién (especially those running ragnar)

 

Con amor,

Hermana Moser

FELICIDADES A MI PAPA!!!

Bautismo de Matilde y Leudy! (Who, by the way, are on FIRE with the references. Love them!)

Translation: The climate of Tabasco is lovely and fresh... what happens is you can´t feel it because of the HEAT! hahahaha... hilarious.

Add This is President Morales singing with the Mariachi band they brought in for the Ward Father´s Day activity last Monday. He´s the coolest! :) haha

Found a friend with a Capitán America shield.

Talked my companion into buying Capitán America soap :) It smells delicious.

We invited the whole band to church. None of them came. #howrude

Templo!!!!!!

BueNAS!

FELICIDADES A MI PAPA!!! TE QUIERO!!! I am glad they all treated you well. :) Love you!

... I´ll be honest. I don´t really know what to say. I apologize if this turns out real lame.

Deportiva is wonderful, and very safe... relatively speaking. They lock the gates more for the safety of the vehicles than anything. A lot of things get robbed here so... hence the lockage. I think it happens more here than it did in my last area because they´re a little more well-off. Plus, all the people see is well-dressed and good looking people entering a beautiful, clean building. But don´t you worry... We are 100% safe. 

Yesterday we visited a menos activa (who is ALWAYS entertaining) who says that she can´t go to church because she´s scared to live her house alone "with all the wickedness in the world." So we shared the scripture about the wise man and the foolish man and upon what we should build our house. After she read the scripture I asked "Which house does the scripture say was stronger... The house built on the rock, or the house built on the sand?" And she said, after thinking for a little bit, "Well, probably the house on the sand, because if there´s an earthquake the rocks are just going to crumble." hhahahahaha... Oh good ole Leticia. Love her. She never did quite get where we were going with that scripture...

Last week was WONDERFUL but exhausting. We had the Consejo de Liderazgo (Hermana Ayala has been assigned as Lider Capacitadora... the 4th of my 4 companions to have the assignment) so I had divisions for half a day, zone conference, annnnndd I went to the temple twice in one day. :) The first was because the misioneros from the consejo were going to go that night, and another hermana that hadn´t gone in a long time needed a companion. Thus, I was assigned to go with her in the morning. Then, that afternoon we were going to go do baptisms for the dead with the youth and recent converts. As it turns out, missionarys can´t do baptisms, so we were asked to do a session instead. It was wonderful! but also exhausting. I love the temple! There really is no other place where you can feel the spirit quite as strongly. It is amazing the peace it brings. 

Hermana Ayala is wonderful! She is like a combination of all of my companions. :) She is from Monterrey, she´s 20 years old, the youngest of 4, and has 10 months in the mission. We have found so many amazingly prepared people this week! I am so excited to work this cambio!!! She is REALLY good at speaking with everybody. Sometimes we pass a person and she just stops, flips around, and starts contacting. I am going to learn a lot from her. :) 

Good luck with RAGNAR this week, to all who are crazy enough to participate. I´ll definitely be praying for you :) 

I love you I love you I love you!! 

Con amor, 

Hermana Monster

PS WELCOME HOME ELDER WITHERS!!!!

...drum roll... CAMBIOS!

Kidding! I mean.. not kidding. We really did have cambios today, but I am still very much in Deportiva. Hermana Lopez has left for some place that I can never remember how to pronounce, and now I am here with the lovely and talented Hermana Ayala. :) Should be a good cambio. Excitement is in the air.

Anyroad, Buenas tardes familia mía! 

Sounds like you´ve had all kinds of adventures! It´s really unfortunate that Nathan didn´t get a full nights rest the night before Boys State. Rumor has it that you do not get a lot of sleep there. And then if you nod off in class... well.. The punishment is you get even less sleep. So let´s hope home-boy is having a good time. haha

Also, I don´t believe for a second that all the children wanted to write me out of the love and good intentions of their hearts. They just wanted to get out of painting the fence. (Don´t deny it. Been there, done that, used that excuse). But i love them anyway and can´t wait to hear from them next week. :)

Since it has been a while since I have given you a good food story, please sit back and enjoy the following: 

One time, Hermana Lopez and I went to the home of a lovely menos activa that was having a rough moment in her life. In most homes, they offer us some sort of beverage while we are there which we accept gratefully because we are sweating all day. The hermana offered us some "agua," we said "por favor," and out came two tall cold glasses of some sort of chunky liquid. Upon tasting, I realized that it was chunky cucumber water with juuuuust enough onion to give it a good kick. A good enough "kick" that we pretended to drink it all through the lesson, and then offered to "wash the cups" and pour it down the sink. Bless her. Cucumbers and onions do not belong together in liquid form. 

I spoke again in church yesterday. They lock the gate right at 9 for safety reasons, and then open it again right after the sacrament for whoever comes late. Yesterday at 9 o´clock there were 4 missionaries, 5 recent converts, and about 3 other families. So Bishop Hermandez asked Hermana Lopez and I to speak, and the other misioneras to bear testimony. Good times. 

 I had this week that opened my eyes quite a bit in regards to the atonement. We went to visit another less active sister the other night with the plan to share a message on the Holy Ghost. When we got there, she was watching a movie about the bible and the life of Christ. Well, the movie was terrible, but we didn´t know how to ask her to turn off a movie about the very message that we bring.. so we just whipped out our himnarios and asked if we could sing a hymn. "Should I turn off the movie first?" "Yes, hermana.. I mean.. if you want to.." We sang "Asombro Me Da" ("I Stand All Amazed") and then simply bore testimony of the reality of the Savior and his Atonement. All the way home I had the words of that hymn going through my head.

 "I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me; confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me. I tremble to know that for me He was crucified.. that for me a sinner he suffered, he bled, and died. Oh it is wonderful that he should care for me enough to die for me! Oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me!"

It truly is incredible the LOVE that Jesus must have for every single one of us. It fills my heart with such joy to think that each individual is so loved and so remembered and so worth it in the eyes of God. OH it is WONDERFUL! Wonderful to me. 

I love you I love you I love you!!!

Hermana Moser

OH THEY SAY WHEN YOU EMAIL IN JUUNE...

June 2, 2014

BUENAS TARDES A TODOS!

This is gonna be real quick, kids. We had ourselves some baptisms this weekend and it was WONDERFUL but now we have some paperwork. Good times. Gooooood times. 

Yes, Mother dearest, I did buy my shoes. They are lovely granny shoes and I am proud to wear them. I feel like a real missionary now! haha.. but seriously. Almost all the latina misioneras have them, so I´m pretty much Mexicana by now. 

This week was wonderful! Lots of walking and teaching and planning and talking. The best part was yesterday, however. It was just a really good Sunday. The testimonies were all really strong, we taught Gospel Principles (so who knows how THAT really turned out, hahaha), and for Relief Society/ Priesthood we had a combined training meeting on the work of salvation. They showed the video "Missionary Work and the Atonement." If you have never watched it, I highly suggest you look it up. It is the most powerful thing I have ever seen. I had seen it before, but not since entering the field. 

Part of it is from an MTC talk given by Elder Holland. He was talking about why this work is so hard. We know the church is true, we believe in miracles, we are living worthy... Why aren´t more people getting baptized? Why do people reject us? Elder Holland believes it´s because "Salvation is not a cheap experience." If even the perfect missionary (our Savior, Jesus Christ) asked the Father to "remove this cup," why are we surprised that sharing His message is no whimsical or easy thing to do? It was a bit of a wake up call for me, and I committed right then to focus more on my purpose as a missionary. This is precious time that I have been given, and I DO NOT want to waste it.  

Go watch it. :) 

Anyone knows an ant can't move a rubber tree plant...but one leaf at a time....maybe!

Temple Trip!

Opening my Birthday package

I am glad that you are all safe and healthy! (Relatively speaking). I´m a happy little lark in the rain right now. Turns out I will be soaking wet ALL of my mission thanks to sweat and rain. But hey! It´s a wonderful life and I am enjoying it thoroughly. Just learning the area really well because next week are cambios, and since Hermana Lopez has 6 months in Deportiva.....Chances are I´ll be getting a new companion next week. It´s terrifying, but I can do hard things. :) 

I love you I love you I love you!!!

Hermana Monster.

The Week of Forgotten Food

May 26, 2014

DEAREST FAMILY:

You sound like the busiest people in the world. Well, that´s probably not true... but after the relaxing p-day I am having, it sure sounds like ya got a lot going on. How great are the last weeks of school, right? 

This week was not super interesting. The most excitement we had daily was that our food forgot us almost every day. It is a great feeling to walk a billion miles expecting some delightful Mexican treats (The food is way less sketchy here) ... (except at one house...) only to find that they are not there, and now you have to walk another thousand miles across town to the RS presidents house so she can feed you. Actually, we only went to her house once. She fed us all kinds of shrimp and it was DELICIOUS, but we think that maybe Hermana Lopez is allergic to shrimp. Don´t worry. She is fine. The other time we just went to Subway. Apparently the food forgetting about us is a common occurrence. 

We also had interviews with the President last week. I just love him! And his wife! They just make me feel so loved! President Morales gave me some really good advice on how to invite people to be baptized in the first lesson. Most of it centered on being a love-focused missionary. When love is the motive you cannot go wrong. He counseled me to be more open with my feelings towards the members and the people we are teaching. He said, "Don´t worry about trying not to cry, because if you are worried about that you will hinder the Spirit." I thought, "Well, that´s unfortunate. Because I have actually been really proud of my tear-control lately." So... here it goes. Hope I don´t freak out my companion with the flood that is sure to follow. 

Just in case you were wondering about my spelling-slash-grammar problems, I think you should know that I am starting to forget English. Not a lot.. so don´t start clapping(Mom) too soon. It´s just... Por ejemplo: The other day Hermana Weaver was telling me a story about laundry. She said something about the "Laundry washer," paused, and then started laughing at herself because that is not actually what you call it. What was REALLY sad is that I didn´t even correct her. I was just nodding like, "yeah! Laundry washer.. that´s right!" hahahaha Ohh we got a good laugh out of that. Then I wrote it down on my memory calendar, but I put laundry machine--which would be correct-- instead of laundry washer. So that´s embarrassing. Also, I hope you thought that was funny because if you didn´t....awkward. 

Que mas.. que mas... We are going to have a baptism this weekend! That is.. if they pass their interview tonight. (last night during the pre-interview, we asked the Mom what the word of wisdom meant, and she told us that it meant someone that has a lot of wisdom.. hahaha. Don´t worry. We cleared that confusion right up). It is not Ericka, nor is it Raul, but it is a Mother and Daughter named Matilde y Leudy that are so precious! I love them so much! They are the most caring and generous people I have met on my mission. Hna. Lopez and I think she is going to be the next RS president. :) 

Well.. I got 10 minutes left to figure out this computers picture system. I apologize in advance if I can´t figure it out. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAMPS!!!!! Thank you for being the BEST Grandpa, and for your righteous example to all of your many grandchildren. I love you so much!!! 

I love you I love you I love you!!

Hermana Monser :)

Birthday, April 23, 2014

Hotdogs!!  Birthday cake!